The overall objective of this research is to increase our understanding of the impact of a major disaster on the survivors and its subsequent effects on their mental and physical health and their familial and community interrelations. Factors tending to enhance or ameliorate psychic impairment will be sought from data on 625 survivors of the slag dam collapse and flood at Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, on February 26, 1972. Personal accounts and interview data are being quantified with regard to the severity of various stress factors occurring at the time and subsequent to the disaster and the nature and degree of psychosocial impairment found in individuals and families. Additional structured data will be obtained from two follow-up studies of partial samples. Major hypotheses to be tested are: a. The greater the physical stress and life-threatening aspects of the disaster and its aftermath on an individual, the greater will be his long-term psychopathology. b. The greater the stress due to loss of family and friends, destruction of home and physical displacement and disruption of family life style, the more severe will be the family psychosocial impairment. c. More severe psychic impairment will be evidenced by children who were of school age at the time of the disaster than by children who were preschoolers. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Baloh, R., Sturm, R., Green, G., & Gleser, G. Neuropsychological effects of chronic asymptomatic increased lead absorption: A controlled study. Archives of Neurology, 1975, 32:326-330. Green, B.L., Gleser, G.C., Stone, W.N., & Seifert, R.F. Relationships among diverse measures of psychotherapy outcome. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1975, 43:689-699.